You will be shocked to learn that families can be a blessing and/or a curse.  One of the many compelling songs off of Toronto-based band Evening Hymns‘ sophomore album, Spectral Dusk, is Family Tree.  The band’s lead singer-songwriter, Jonas Bonetta, recently had this to say about the song:  “I’ve often felt obligated to associate with people in my life based on traditional family structure.  This is about severing a lot of those dysfunctional relationships.”  Check out the band’s video for Family Tree below.  To the extent you are currently focused on the curse side of the family equation, we hope this video will resonate and provide solace this Sunday.

Video co-director Chris Altorf described the video concept as “centered around the idea of presence. We tried to explore how a space can be filled or weighted with memories, and also drained of those same moments. We used projections of events doubled onto the same space when empty to illustrate the dissipation of family. We were interested in the idea of how relationships can be built and supported by perceived strength, but also how events can shatter such perceptions.”

The Avett Brothers have been encoring at their shows with a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s  In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.  Check out a couple of such encores below.

Speaking of Atoms For Peace’s Nigel Godrich, his band Ultraista acquitted themselves quite well last night on the Letterman Show.  Check it out below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKEOcx7VP4&feature=em-uploademail-new

Atoms For Peace (Thom Yorke, Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Warnonker and  Mauro Refosco) announced yesterday they will release new album Amok via XL Records on the 28th of January 2013.  Coincident with that announcement, the band released track What the Eyeballs Did, the B-side of a new 12″ entitled Default (out on the 19th of November 2012).  We note the artwork on the track, with its LAX/SoCal-flooding-apocalypto motif, which is particularly eerie in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  More happy happy joy joy.

The title track, Default, was released previously.  Listen to both below.  We can’t wait.  Atoms For Peace’s 2010 concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl was our 2010 Concert of the Year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Uc7LieFeE&feature=plcp

As specifically requested by Jimmy Kimmel while broadcasting in Brooklyn last night, check out The Avett Brothers with the Brooklyn Philharmonic performing their Brooklyn-bound ode I and Love and You in honor of those affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nABaetOGTpc&feature=channel&list=UL

We confess we have had a difficult time separating out Passion Pit from all the Matt & Kim’s, Cut Copy’s, Phoenix’s, etc. (not a knock on these bands, just a comment on the burgeoning genre).  So it has come as a sweet surprise to catch the band’s Michael Angelakos and Ian Hultquist making the radio rounds and playing unplugged.  Finally our focus has been drawn to the band’s songwriting and, it turns out, well-crafted, poignant lyrics.  As opposed to the more cheery sounding synths and sonorities of their prior recordings, their second album, Gossamer, evinces a darker, more intelligent depth below its surface.  And all of it has thankfully come to the fore with these unplugged performances.  On Gossamer, songwriter Michael Angelakos lyrically addresses alcoholism, hospital stints and suicidal tendencies.  Watch/listen to some new and old songs performed recently on 89.3 The Current, 98.7FM Penthouse and NPR’s Tiny Desk.  Bravo!

The lyrics of stand-out song Take a Walk follow the videos.  Spoken/sung like a Greek lad.

Take a Walk lyrics:

“All these kind of places
Make it seems like it’s been ages
Tomorrow some new buildings will scrape the sky
I love this country dearly
I can feel the ladder clearly
But never thought I’d be alone to try

Once I was outside Penn Station
Selling red and white carnations
We were still alone
My wife and I
Before we married, saved my money
Brought my dear wife over
Now I work to bring family state side

But off the boat they stayed awhile then scattered across the coast
Once a year I’ll see them for a week or so at most

Chorus:
I took a walk
Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk
Take a walk, oh-oh-oh
Take a walk, 0h-oh-oh
I take a walk
Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk
Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Practice isn’t perfect
But the market cuts the loss
I remind myself that times could be much worse
My wife won’t ask me questions
There’s not so much to ask
And she’ll never flaunt around an empty purse

Once my mother in law came
Just to stay a couple nights
Then decided she would stay the rest of her life
I watch my little children
Play some board game in the kitchen
And I sit and pray they never feel my strife

But then my partner called to say the pension funds were gone
He made some bad investments, now the accounts are overdrawn

Chorus

Honey, it’s your son
I think I borrowed just too much
We had taxes, we had bills
We had a lifestyle to front
And tonight I swear I’ll come home
And we’ll make love like we’re young
And tomorrow you’ll cook dinner
For the neighbors and the kids
We could rip apart those socialists
And all their damn taxes
But see I am no criminal
I’m down on both bad knees
I’m just too much a coward
To admit when I’m in need

Chorus”

It happened again.  In all honesty, we had never heard of Cory Chisel and his Wandering Sons until last night when they performed on Conan.  Based on their look, we were skeptical until Chisel and crew kicked into songs Foxgloves and Tennessee.  We expected some more half-baked, faux-country crap that emanates from Nashville and other alleged “country music” environs.  Instead we got Desire-era Dylan, combined with Springsteen, mixed with some Paul Simon, all rolled up in an updated, winning sound.  Chisel, long time keyboard player and singing partner Adriel Denae and the boys mesh perfectly on Conan.   Bucky Baxter’s poignant pedal steel and the drumming shine through on Foxgloves.  The band recently released a Brendan Benson-produced album, Old Believers, that has been well-received.  They are also currently out wandering around on tour.  Check them below and catch ’em when you can.  After the Conan performances, watch their official video for song Times Won’t Change.

Foxgloves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-GvrM3Womc&feature=channel&list=UL

Tennessee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnK18DZ_bvE&feature=channel&list=UL

Feist’s 2011, Polaris Prize-winning album Metals still resonates at Chez Lefort, over a year later.  Yesterday, on Día de los Muertos, Ms. Feist released a new black & white (except for one digitally colored butterfly) video for Graveyard, one of the more affecting songs on the album.  The Keith Megna-directed video features a stark scene augmented by digital butterflies and blackbirds.  Feist has this to say about the song (via Pitchfork):

“I’m not talking about the Graveyard as a location, but of the entangled thoughts you get when visiting a graveyard. Usually you’re there to visit someone who’s died, and you think in broad terms about what they’ve become and your own mortality and about what time means. We’re alone in the field, always at a distance. And people appear and disappear from your life. Grief comes in the form of much larger thoughts; it’s more philosophical and it leads to a confused state of mind. You don’t get those thoughts from checking your emails! It’s a pullback from details and its grand and isolating.”

The song’s lyrics follow the video.  Bring them all back to life.

“The graveyard, the graveyard all full of light
The only age, the beating heart is empty of life
Dirt and grass, a shadow heart; the moon sails past
Blood as ice is an empty crisis, lonely it lies

Whoa-ah-ah-ah ah-ah, bring ’em all back to life [x4]

Roots and lies, roots and lies, our family tree is old
From there we climb the golden hill, calmly will eternity
I held your heart, a giant wand; all tell of sorrow
And history begins to be blue and brown eyes

Whoa-ah-ah-ah ah-ah, bring ’em all back to life [x8]”

We’ve been yammering on and on about the accomplished A.C. Newman and his fantastic new album, Shut Down The Streets.  We can’t wait to catch him live while he’s out on tour in the next month.  To give you a feel for Newman live, check out below Exclaim! TV’s vignette captured before a Toronto show in which Newman and a cavalcade of cohorts give a sterling rendition of You Could Get Lost Out Here off the new album.  After, go HERE to read Exclaim’s interview with Newman.  Newman’s remaining tour dates are below the video.